The Association of American Medical Colleges proposes to sponsor a one year project to increase the understanding by officials of medical schools and teaching hospitals, and their faculties and staff members of the impact of the aging population on medical education and the delivery of health care. This objective would be achieved through the development of performance characteristics and learning objectives to assist medical centers in assessing their own educational efforts; regional conferences with plenary session presentations and small group discussions; a special session at the 1982 AAMC annual meeting, and the publication of conference proceedings. The performance characteristics, which would provide a graded approach to the level of knowledge appropriate at each stage of a physician's education, would be designed to assure that a general primary care physician would be qualified to treat the particular health needs of the elderly patient.